Implications of Increased Central Mass Surface Densities for the Quenching of Low-mass Galaxies

Abstract

We use the Cosmic Assembly Deep Near-infrared Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) data to study the relationship between quenching and the stellar mass surface density within the central radius of 1 kpc (${\Sigma }_1$) of low-mass galaxies (stellar mass $M_{\ast }\lesssim 10^{9.5}{M}_{\odot }$) at $0.5\le z<1.5$. Our sample is mass complete down to $\sim 10^9{M}_{\odot }$ at $0.5\le z<1.0$. We compare the mean ${\Sigma }_1$ of star-forming galaxies (SFGs) and quenched galaxies (QGs) at the same redshift and $M_{\ast }$. We find that low-mass QGs have higher ${\Sigma }_1$ than low-mass SFGs, similar to galaxies above $10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$. The difference of ${\Sigma }_1$ between QGs and SFGs increases slightly with $M_{\ast }$ at $M_{\ast }\lesssim 10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$ and decreases with $M_{\ast }$ at $M_{\ast }\gtrsim 10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$. The turnover mass is consistent with the mass where quenching mechanisms transition from internal to environmental quenching. At $0.5\le z<1.0$, we find that the ${\Sigma }_1$ of galaxies increases by about 0.25 dex in the green valley (i.e., the transitioning region from star forming to fully quenched), regardless of their $M_{\ast }$. Using the observed specific star formation rate (sSFR) gradient in the literature as a constraint, we estimate that the quenching timescale (i.e., time spent in the transition) of low-mass galaxies is a few ($\sim 4$) Gyrs at $0.5\le z<1.0$. The mechanisms responsible for quenching need to gradually quench star formation in an outside-in way, i.e., preferentially ceasing star formation in outskirts of galaxies while maintaining their central star formation to increase ${\Sigma }_1$. An interesting and intriguing result is the similarity of the growth of ${\Sigma }_1$ in the green valley between low-mass and massive galaxies, which suggests that the role of internal processes in quenching low-mass galaxies is a question worthy of further investigation.

12 pages, 11 figures. Accepted by ApJ

References in corpus (27)

• Mass and environment as drivers of galaxy evolution in SDSS and zCOSMOS and the origin of the Schechter function
• 3D-HST+CANDELS: The Evolution of the Galaxy Size-Mass Distribution since $z=3$
• An ultra-deep near-infrared spectrum of a compact quiescent galaxy at z=2.2
• Constraining the Low-Mass Slope of the Star Formation Sequence at 0.5<z<2.5
• Intermediate-Mass Black Holes
• Combined CO & Dust Scaling Relations of Depletion Time and Molecular Gas Fractions with Cosmic Time, Specific Star Formation Rate and Stellar Mass
• Evidence for Mature Bulges and an Inside-out Quenching Phase 3 Billion Years After the Big Bang
• Stellar masses from the CANDELS survey: the GOODS-South and UDS fields
• Effect of local environment and stellar mass on galaxy quenching and morphology at $0.5<z<2.0$
• CANDELS Multiwavelength Catalogs: Source Identification and Photometry in the CANDELS COSMOS Survey Field
• Stellar populations from spectroscopy of a large sample of quiescent galaxies at z > 1: Measuring the contribution of progenitor bias to early size growth
• Dense cores in galaxies out to z=2.5 in SDSS, UltraVISTA, and the five 3D-HST/CANDELS fields
• Structural Properties of Central Galaxies in Groups and Clusters
• A Comparative Study of Density Field Estimation for Galaxies: New Insights into the Evolution of Galaxies with Environment in COSMOS out to z~3
• Galaxy environment in the 3D-HST fields. Witnessing the onset of satellite quenching at z ~ 1-2
• Overconsumption, outflows and the quenching of satellite galaxies
• Quiescence correlates strongly with directly-measured black hole mass in central galaxies
• The distinct stellar-to-halo mass relations of satellite and central galaxies: insights from the IllustrisTNG simulations
• Large Scale Structures in the CANDELS Fields: The Role of the Environment in Star Formation Activity
• The Roles of Mass and Environment in the Quenching of Galaxies. II
• A New View of the Size-Mass Distribution of Galaxies: Using $r_{20}$ and $r_{80}$ instead of $r_{50}$
• Satellite Quenching, Galaxy Inner Density and the Halo Environment
• CANDELS Sheds Light on the Environmental Quenching of Low-mass Galaxies
• On the evolution of the central density of quiescent galaxies
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Timescales for galaxies crossing the green valley
• Evidence for (and Against) Progenitor Bias in the Size Growth of Compact Red Galaxies
• The Dearth of Difference between Central and Satellite Galaxies III. Environmental Dependence of Mass-Size and Mass-Structure Relations

Cited by in corpus (5)

• AGN Feedback in SDSS-IV MaNGA: AGNs have Suppressed Central Star Formation Rates
• The CAVITY project. The spatially resolved stellar population properties of galaxies in voids
• The miniJPAS survey: The galaxy populations in the most massive cluster in miniJPAS, mJPC2470-1771
• CLEAR: The Morphological Evolution of Galaxies in the Green Valley
• The impact of selection criteria on the properties of green valley galaxies